Wild garlic soup

Ramslökssoppa

In the spring ramslök (wild garlic) can be found growing in forests in southern Sweden. Wild garlic soup has become rather fashionable lately, although it has never been quite as popular as nässelsoppa (nettle soup) in Sweden, probably because it is much easier to find nettles. However, wild garlic is much nicer to pick so if you have any wild garlic growing near you it is worth picking some to make this delicious soup.

Wild garlic normally only grows in woodland and looks rather like Lily of the Valley. Take care to ensue that when you rub the leaves they smell of garlic because Lily of the Valley is poisonous.

The leaves are at their best between late April and May, preferably before it comes into flower. The flowers are very attractive, but by the time wild garlic comes into flower the leaves are getting too big and they can be a little bitter.

Unlike with cultivated garlic, only the leaves are picked, as the bulbs are far too small to be of any use in cooking. The leaves can be picked by hand or you can cut them with a pair of scissors. Obviously, don't pick too many in one area so the plants will come again next year.

Wild garlic pesto is probably more popular than soup, but I make both and use the pesto to make a cream and for a garnish. John Duxbury

Summary

Tips

• Wild garlic is quite bulky so you will need about a third of a carried bag of wild garlic. For instance, the photo above shows 50 grams of wild garlic leaves in a medium mixing bowl, sufficient for the pesto recipe below.• There is normally no need to wash wild garlic, simply pick over the leaves to remove any moss, grass or other leaves.• The potato is added as a thickening. If the soup is still too thin, mix a tablespoon of flour with some water and then add it to the soup and bring to the boil before adding the soured cream.• Serve the soup with a good rye bread or some nice crusty white bread.

Wild garlic pesto

You can either start by making the wild garlic pesto or you can make this whilst the potatoes are cooking, as in step 2 above. (You could substitute shallots or onion for the leek, pinenuts or almonds instead of walnuts, olive oil instead of rapeseed oil and any similar hard cheese to Parmesan. I simply fancied a change from ordinary pesto!)

50 g

(2 cups)

wild garlic leaves

25 g

(2 tbsp)

leek, roughly sliced

25 g

(3 tbsp)

walnuts

75 g

(5 tbsp)

rapeseed oil

25 g

(4 tbsp)

Parmesan cheese, finely grated

½ tsp

salt

¼ tsp

caster (superfine) sugar

1 tbsp

extra rapeseed oil

Pick over the leaves and then place them in a food processor with the leek or shallot, walnuts or pinenuts and the rapeseed or olive oil. Blitz for a minute until finely mixed and then fold in the grated cheese, salt and sugar. Pour into a sterilised jar, pressing down well to remove any air bubbles. Pour over another tablespoon of oil to ensure the surface is covered with oil. Keep in a fridge until required.

When required, stir in the oil and use as necessary. Before returning the jar to a fridge, add some more oil to ensure that the surface is covered. The pesto is superb on bread, stirred into pasta or even added to a bread dough.

Wild garlic cream

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